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Friday, February 17, 2017

B vitamins reduce schizophrenia symptoms, study finds

Manchester: A review of worldwide studies has found that add-on treatment
with high-dose b-vitamins - including B6, B8 and B12 - can significantly
reduce symptoms of schizophrenia more than standard treatments alone. The research - on the effect of vitamin and mineral supplements on symptoms of schizophrenia - is funded by The Medical Research Council and University of Manchester, and is published in Psychological Medicine, one of the world’s leading psychology journals

Lead author Joseph Firth, based at the University’s Division of Psychology and Mental Health,
said: “Looking at all of the data from clinical trials of vitamin and
mineral supplements for schizophrenia to date, we can see that B
vitamins effectively improve outcomes for some patients.
“This could be an important advance, given that new treatments for this condition are so desperately needed.”
Schizophrenia affects around 1% of the population and is among the most disabling and costly long term conditions worldwide.
Currently, treatment is based around the administration of antipsychotic drugs.
Although patients typically experience remission of symptoms such as
hallucinations and delusions within the first few months of treatment,
long-term outcomes are poor; 80% of patients relapse within five years.
The researchers reviewed all randomized clinical trials reporting
effects of vitamin or mineral supplements on psychiatric symptoms in
people with schizophrenia.
In what is the first meta-analysis carried out on this topic, they
identified 18 clinical trials with a combined total of 832 patients
receiving antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia.
B-vitamin interventions which used higher dosages or combined several
vitamins were consistently effective for reducing psychiatric symptoms,
whereas those which used lower doses were ineffective.
Also, the available evidence also suggests that B-vitamin supplements
may be most beneficial when implemented early on, as b-vitamins were
most likely to reduce symptoms when used in studies of patients with
shorter illness durations.

“

This could be an important advance, given that new treatments for this condition are so desperately needed

Firth added: “High-dose B-vitamins
may be useful for reducing residual symptoms in people with
schizophrenia, although there were significant differences among the
findings of the studies we looked at.”
“There is also some
indication that these overall effects may be driven by larger benefits
among subgroups of patients who have relevant genetic or dietary
nutritional deficiencies.”
Co-author Jerome Sarris, Professor of
Integrative Mental Health at Western Sydney University, added: “This
builds on existing evidence of other food-derived supplements, such as
certain amino-acids, been beneficial for people with schizophrenia.
“These
new findings also fit with our latest research examining how
multi-nutrient treatments can reduce depression and other disorders.”
The
research team say more studies are now needed to discover how nutrients
act on the brain to improve mental health, and to measure effects of
nutrient-based treatments on other outcomes such as brain functioning
and metabolic health.The paper "The effects of vitamin and mineral supplementation on symptoms of schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis" is published by the journal, Psychological Medicine. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291717000022